2014/07/31

On Ropecon and sources of inspiration

I've visited Ropecon ever since I got involved with the Helsinki University roleplaying club Alter ego and found myself playing and hanging out with gamers on regular basis. I place this around year 2002 - before that I'd only been to Finncon because I loved books and stories and fantasy and it had been interesting.
A lot has happened in my life and in the lifes of my friends since 2002, but visiting Ropecon felt so good and nice.

I guess once of the reasons I love Ropecon is that it gives me a sense of belonging. I'd been roleplaying with my friends prior to that with varying success but the club provided me with a community I could fit in and not feel weird or different. I was with people I could use my imagination and speak about scaled unicorns and they'd just say "cool". Being weird and different was a good thing.

Now even more than every before visiting Ropecon was inspiring. I do play regularly (I guess I average about demiweekly playing Lamentations of the Flame Princess with the (I'm not going to put any actual adjectives here for the sanity of my non-playing friends and the reputation of the art of playing) nice GM that has designed it. Now that I watched the enthusiastic and exited performances of Luke Crane I've started wonder "what if?". What if I wrote a story? What if I tried to design a game? What if I could do whatever I want? Call it an age crisis, but I did draw some designs and diagrams for the game I want to do. I have a theme, I have an idea of the mechanics I want to add (for me the basic mechanics of a game are a measure of luck and probabilities that affect your choices, be it in any system you play) and a feeling I could do it. Will the energy and inspiration of Ropecon wane before I get round to it? Last year I started painting and drawing almost seriously - this year I could start writing as well. I don't know, but I feel changes are coming to my life.